Oakland councilwoman focuses on police exam to broaden diversity
Brooks is the chairwoman of the council’s Public Safety Committee and says she wants to ensure that Oakland has “a Police Department that’s reflective of the community they serve.”
According to data from the city and the 2010 U.S. census, 35 percent of Oakland’s population is white, while 41 percent of the Police Department is white.
Brooks has established herself as a spokeswoman for race issues in City Hall, persuading the City Council in June to set aside $617,000 in the city budget to create a Department of Race and Equity to hold other city departments accountable for racial disparities in their services.
The Public Safety Committee the councilwoman chairs monitors the city’s law enforcement agencies and Fire Department.
Since the beginning of the year, Brooks has asked Police Chief Sean Whent to submit reports on the department’s efforts to recruit and retain African American officers.
In February, Whent pointed out in a staff report to the Public Safety Committee that African American candidates fail the written exam more often than they fail the physical abilities test.
In reality, Police Department legislative manager Bruce Stoffmacher told The Chronicle, candidates of all races fail the written exam more often than the physical tests.
Police said doing that would violate standards set by the state Commission on Police Officer Standards and Testing, which lays out training requirements for more than 600 police agencies in California.
The Oakland Police Department defended its scoring requirement in a July staff report to the Public Safety Committee, saying it helps ensure that applicants “are somewhat above minimally qualified and thus more prepared to succeed in the academy, field training and as a police officer.”
A representative of Commission on Police Officer Standards and Testing said it’s a mistake to blame the written exam for racial imbalances in the department.
Alexis Blaylock, who serves as a senior consultant for the state commission, said the written exam is a critical indicator of whether an officer can fill out police reports, gather testimony from witnesses and comprehend the laws he or she has to enforce.
Stoffmacher said there are no data indicating that African American applicants are any more likely to fail the exam than applicants of other races, or that the exam is what weeds people out — a recent internal study showed that candidates who did not ultimately graduate from Oakland’s four most recent academies scored slightly higher on the exam than those who graduated.